Two challenges filed to Estates oil well permit

Protestors marched on Saturday, Aug. 31, 2013 on Naples Beach in front of Fla. Governor Rick Scott's Naples home. Several dozens showed and representatives from Greenpeace out of Tampa backed the march. Patrons started at the Naples Pier 1.6 miles down to the Scott residence witnessed by a mostly-packed beach.

Dania Maxwell/Staff
Pierre Bruno, center, answers questions about the environmental concerns raised by members of the community about proposed oil drilling sites in Collier County during a public information session organized by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection at the Golden Gate Community Center on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2013. Many people from the community came out to express their concern and frustrations.

NAPLES DAILY NEWS

GOLDEN GATE ESTATES - The state's decision to grant a permit for an exploratory oil and gas well in Golden Gate Estates has drawn two challenges so far, one in the name of Florida panthers and the other focused on the emergency evacuation plan.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection's late-September approval of the exploratory well began a time period during which anyone affected can ask the agency to refer the decision to a state hearing officer.

Texas-based Dan A. Hughes Co. wants to drill the exploratory well east of 24th Avenue Southeast near Desoto Boulevard to determine if it wants to go ahead with an oil or gas production well. Hughes Co. proposed the exploratory well in conjunction with Collier Resources Co., which owns mineral rights underneath vast acreage in Southwest Florida.

With the days counting down until the Monday, Oct. 21, deadline to challenge the 24th Avenue Southeast permit, a Fort Lauderdale-area panther protection activist filed a petition for a hearing. Another petition was filed jointly in the names of a nonprofit advocacy group and a neighbor of the project site.

"Florida panthers would suffer adverse impacts from drilling at the location in question, as the habitat would no longer be suitable for their use," contends Lake Worth resident Matthew Schwartz, a self-described environmental activist for panthers and a South Florida wilderness guide.

The second petition bears the name of Preserve Our Paradise Inc., a Collier County-based nonprofit that has been rallying opposition for months, and Thomas Mosher, a 26th Avenue Southeast resident who said he lives within 1,500 feet of the proposed drilling site.

Mosher contends he "could be substantially affected by an accidental release of hydrogen sulfide to the ambient air, impairing or injuring the air that (he) breathes."

His petition also said an emergency evacuation plan for residents isn't adequately worked out in case there is a drilling accident.

"Despite initially requiring a public evacuation plan in the event of a well blowout, the (DEP) went ahead and approved the permit — even though the permit's hopelessly inadequate ‘contingency plan' had never even been submitted to Collier County safety authorities," Preserve Our Paradise President Joe Mulé said in a statement.

The Stone Crab Alliance, an organization involved in the well permit debate, plans a press conference at 10 a.m. Friday at the Collier County government center in East Naples to discuss the permit and challenges.

DEP spokeswoman Dee Ann Miller said the agency's general counsel will review the petitions requesting a hearing and by law would have to do so within 15 days. Under that time table, a decision on whether to schedule an administrative hearing could come down late this month or in November.

Under state procedures, if the petition is considered sufficient, the DEP general counsel would refer the matter to an administrative officer for a hearing, Miller said. If a petition isn't sufficient, it could be rejected with the caveat that the group or person requesting it can amend the petition and renew the request.

The Hughes Co. official authorized to speak about the project hasn't been available for comment despite repeated attempts to reach him in recent weeks.

Miller said another round of reviews would be needed if the Hughes Co. project progresses to the production well permitting stage. For now, she said, the DEP's review is focused on the challenges to the exploration well permit.

For the oil and gas production well, permits from both DEP and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would be needed for the so-called brine well to support the drilling process through underground water storage.

Wilda Cobb, associate regional counsel for the EPA, said the federal government shutdown delayed the date for the EPA's planned public hearing on the project by about two weeks.

"We're working on the public notice (now)," Cobb said Thursday, back at work after she was among the federal workers on furlough during the shutdown. "We have to give 30 days' public notice before the meeting."

That would schedule the hearing, originally planned for mid-November, for late November or early December, she said.

Through donations, Mosher and Preserve Our Paradise Inc. retained Cape Coral environmental attorney Ralf Brookes, who said Thursday he doesn't represent the Stone Crab Alliance, which he identified as a different group than his clients.

At various public meetings and events during the summer, residents raised concerns about water contamination; risk of air and ground pollution; evacuation plans; the response time from the nearest emergency responders; fast-spreading fire whether ignited by brush or the well; poisonous hydrogen sulfide; truck traffic; the filling of ditches causing flooding in the rainy season; noise from work on the well that is occurring 24/7; loss in property value due to additional risk and the stigma of the well, as well as potential harm to endangered panthers.

Most of those concerns aren't brought up in the two petitions asking for an administrative hearing.

"Rather than doing a shotgun approach," Brookes said, the Preserve Our Paradise petition focuses on the missing pieces of the evacuation plan for hydrogen sulfide gas because experts are needed to testify for each issue and covering all of them would be too expensive and time-consuming.

"Our hope is by filing this petition we'll get a better plan for evacuation at the end. It's only addressed for the workers, not the residents," Brookes said of the current emergency evacuation plan. "It's really a life-safety issue."